5-minute film school

So much of schooling focuses on filling young minds with knowledge. But as movie director Alfonso Arau said, “What goes through the mind is forgotten. What goes through the heart and then the mind is remembered forever.”

Cinematic storytelling engages students’ hearts as well as their minds to create meaningful projects that will stay with them long after they’ve forgotten most of the facts they learned in school.

“When we do these authentic movies and these projects, kids care about what they look like and that’s going to stick,” said film teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator Michael Hernandez. “If you think about your own schooling, what are those moments that really stand out still today? It’s the ones that you were passionate about that you enjoyed and had fun in.”

In a session on cinematic storytelling at ISTE 2014, Hernandez explored how filmmaking projects tap into Common Core skills such as writing, critical thinking, collaboration, design and public speaking. The interdisciplinary nature of making a movie engages multiple intelligences so kids can bring their unique strengths to the table and all excel together.

“It’s authentic,” he said. “It’s a solid project that you can put out there to the world. They can show it to their friends, they can show it to their family, you can show it to their parents and you can show the administration what you’re doing.”

In the video below, Hernandez offers filmmaking tips to help students create video projects they’ll be proud to share.

Want more ideas for using technology to achieve deeper learning? Get more than 90 recorded sessions from ISTE 2014 on topics ranging from 1:1 to flipped learning.

Nicole Krueger is ISTE's inbound content strategist and lead blogger for theISTE Connects blog. A former journalist, she has more than a decade of experience as a news reporter and professional blogger.